Archeologists Rediscover an Ancient Peruvian Fresco That Hasn't Been Seen In 106 Years

Black and white photographs that were more than a century old were used to make up the fresco.

Sam Ghavami, the Swiss archeologist who led excavations that uncovered the mural in October, said that it was an exceptional discovery.

Ghavami has been looking for a rock painting for four years and believes it could be over a thousand years old.

The composition of this painting is unique in the history of mural art in pre-HispanicPeru, said the archaeologist who trained at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

The Moche civilization flourished between the 1st and 8th centuries and worshiped the moon, rain, iguanas, and spiders.

The mural is almost 100 feet long and has images in blue, brown, red, white, and yellow paint.

A group of warriors are heading towards a deity.

According to Ghavami, the painted images appear to be inspired by the idea of a sacred hierarchy built around a cult of ancestors.

He believes that the mural could be seen as a depiction of the political and religious order of the region's ancient inhabitants.

The Moche and the Lambayeque were two pre-Incan cultures that lived on the north coast of the country.

Forgotten by scientists

Black and white photos of the mural were taken in 1916 by the German ethnologist Hans Heinrich Bruning.

The site was forgotten by the scientific community due to the destruction of a wall by treasure hunters.

The photos Bruning took were found in 1978 and nobody knew about them.

Archeologists have known about the site since then, but they haven't excavated because they didn't think they'd find anything.

Thick foliage took over as the years went on. Ghavami was interested in the fresco when he was working on his thesis on cultural transitions between the Moche and Lambayeque civilization.

He had to fight for permission from the family that owned the land where the mural was located.

"It took me two years for them to allow me to dig and I had to try different ways to resolve the situation with the help of a shaman who works with the spirit of the shrine," said Ghavami.

Agence France- Presse.